The international movement, Fridays For Future, was started by teenage activist Greta Thunberg.
Tens of thousands of children across the UK have bunked off school on Friday as part of a global climate strike, campaigners said.
The international movement, Fridays For Future, which was started by teenage activist Greta Thunberg in 2018, encourages pupils to protest against governments’ lack of action on climate change by not attending school on Fridays.
Around 120 demonstrations are being staged around the UK, as well as over 3,000 worldwide in 150 countries.
The protests come following a cross-party leaders’ debate on climate change that was broadcast on Channel 4 on Thursday evening.
Activists say it is vital that the environment is pushed to the top of the political agenda.
Jake Woodier, campaigner with the UK Student Climate Network, said: “The idea is to make sure that there is enough pressure on the electorate and to highlight that this is not any ordinary election, it’s a climate election.
“Over the past year young people have been taking to the streets on a monthly basis to highlight the urgent need for action on the climate crisis.
“This has seen public concern skyrocket, and it’s essential that this concern translates at the ballot box in December.
“We’ve got incredibly limited time to address the climate crisis and the next government will be in charge for five vital years that we can’t afford to lose.”
Hundreds of young people gathered in Parliament Square in central London on Friday morning.
Among them was 12-year-old Niamh, who travelled from Guildford to attend the demonstration with her brother Finn, 10, and father Simon.
Speaking to the PA news agency, she said: “It’s not fair. It’s going to affect my generation who won’t know what a polar bear is.
“If we’re off school it will make a difference. I think the Government is doing a bit but we’re being idiots about it.”
Simon, 43, added: “I think it’s good to get them involved and be socially aware, to get involved to fix this for everyone.
“If we don’t, we’re buggered.”
Similar protests are taking place in other UK cities such as Cambridge, Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow and Aberdeen.
The UK Student Climate network says that although the majority of attendees are young people there are an increasing number of adults at Fridays For Future events.
Gwen, 48, from north London, said: “They [the kids] need to be empowered. They need to know they can make a difference. They need to know that they can change the world for the better.”
Her son Tariq, 12, said: “We’re here because we want democracy and [the Government] to give us a Citizens’ Assembly and to end climate change.
“They are the ones with the power to give us what we want.”
“It’s important stuff,” added his friend Tom, 13.
The young activists were joined at Westminster by other groups and chanted “where the f*** are the Government?”
When asked about the language used, Gwen said: “They’re going to be exposed to it at some point – I’d rather it was at a protest march.”
Activists in London plan to unfurl a 30-metre long banner with a “message to the electorate” on Westminster Bridge on Friday afternoon.
Greenpeace UK’s chief scientist Dr Doug Parr said that youth demonstrators were the “moral conscience not just of their generation but the whole of our society”.
“These young people are walking out of school to teach us a big lesson on what it means to be responsible adults,” he said.
“Because there’s no running away from a nature and climate emergency that’s erupting all around us.
“Whoever’s going to be the UK’s next prime minister must realise the gravity of the situation and be willing to take the radical action needed to address it.”
During the Channel 4 debate Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson, Scottish First Minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, Plaid Cymru’s leader Adam Price and Green co-leader Sian Berry discussed their party’s plans for climate action.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the Brexit Party’s Nigel Farage declined to take part in the debate.
Their absence was represented by two circular ice sculptures engraved with maps of the world which stood melting on stage throughout the hour-long programme.
The Conservatives have complained to Ofcom about the sculpture.
Tory minister Michael Gove also posted a video on Twitter, saying he asked to take part in the debate but was refused.
Mr Gove, a former environment secretary, said that the snub was a “denial of debate” and that the other parties were “running scared of debating the Conservatives”.
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — The aid group Save the Children said there is nothing to support accusations of misconduct, speaking after Guatemalan prosecutors raided its offices in the Central American country looking for evidence of alleged abuse of migrant children.
“We have been shocked and puzzled by the unprecedented search of our offices by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Guatemala,” the organization said in a press release Thursday night hours after the raid.
The group said it was not aware of any specific accusations against it.
“We defend the rights of children and adolescents and ensure that they survive, learn and are protected from harm in more than 100 countries around the world,” said the group, which has worked in Guatemala since 1976.
The raid came after prosecutors — themselves accused by the U.S. of corruption and trying to undermine Guatemala’s democracy — claimed Save the Children and a number of other non-governmental groups could “be participating in child trafficking operations.”
Prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche said the raid was to search for evidence from a complaint made relating to those claims, which was “transnational and of great importance” because it involves children’s rights.
The escalating controversy began last week when Fox News contributor Sara Carter published a video of Angel Pineda, the secretary general of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, saying it had received a complaint about the organizations. Carter was the first to announce the raid on social media before police and prosecutors had even entered the offices.
In the video, Pineda called not on the Biden administration or other international authorities, but on Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to aid him in the investigation.
Paxton, a Republican, has railed against U.S. President Joe Biden's handling of rising migration to the U.S.-Mexico border. In February, he tried to sue a migrant aid group in El Paso, accusing it of “facilitating illegal entry to the United States, alien harboring, human smuggling, and operating a stash house.” The effort was blocked by a judge.
“The chaos at the southern border has created an environment where NGOs, funded with taxpayer money from the Biden Administration, facilitate astonishing horrors," Paxton said in a statement.
Those allegations sounded strikingly similar to ones made by Guatemalan prosecutors in a letter sent to Paxton earlier this month.
The Guatemalan government confirmed that the prosecutor’s office contacted Paxton without going through the diplomatic protocols required for international collaboration.
Paxton's office and Guatemala's prosecutor's office did not respond for a request for comment and more information on the case.
The Guatemalan Attorney General’s Office's communication department said Friday that it would not go into details because the case was “related to children and adolescents.”
Guatemalan Attorney General Consuelo Porras has faced international criticism for years and has been sanctioned by the U.S. government for purported undemocratic actions. Since Guatemalans elected reform-oriented President Bernardo Arévalo last August, Porras has grown increasingly isolated and her office has attempted to find allies among some far-right U.S. lawmakers.
Both Pineda and Curruchiche are sanctioned and banned from entering more than 40 countries, including the United States and the European Union, for hindering the fight against corruption in Guatemala and undermining the country's democracy. This notably includes failed efforts to prevent Arévalo from taking office earlier this year.
Associated Press correspondent Megan Janetsky contributed to this report from Mexico City.
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
Agents from the Attorney General's office leave Save the Children's headquarters after conducting a raid of the installation, in Guatemala City, Thursday, April 25, 2024. The NGO is being investigated for an alleged complaint about the violation of migrant children's rights, according to statements made by prosecutor Rafel Curruchiche. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
Police agents stand guard on the perimeters of the Save the Children's headquarters as agents from the Attorney General's office wind up their raid, in Guatemala City, Thursday, April 25, 2024. The NGO is being investigated for an alleged complaint about the violation of migrant children's rights, according to statements made by prosecutor Rafel Curruchiche. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
An agent from the Attorney General's office carries evidence collected at Save the Children's headquarters during a raid, in Guatemala City, Thursday, April 25, 2024. The NGO is being investigated for an alleged complaint about the violation of migrant children's rights, according to statements made by prosecutor Rafel Curruchiche. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
An agent from the Attorney General's office enters Save the Children's headquarters during a raid, in Guatemala City, Thursday, April 25, 2024. The NGO is being investigated for an alleged complaint about the violation of migrant children's rights, according to statements made by prosecutor Rafel Curruchiche. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
